You guys are crazy! I have 3 sets of double French doors on the back of my house, which for us is the only doors we access every day. They are very surcure! But mine are NOT 2-18" in a 36" door space(my utility is though). I'll talk about utility doors later. My 3 sets double doors are 2-24"(each). One door on all 3 pairs, on the inside side of the door, has a top and a bottom latch lock and makes this door stationary. When the opposite door (passage door) is open you can see these two brass locks if you look up and down on the inside of the door where the cylinder catch latch hole is. They lock inside the molding above the door and into the threshold on the bottom...Was not unaffordable at all. I also have one double deadbolt lock on all the passage doors on all three sets of double French doors. It's a personal preference to have a knob on both doors of one set- one can be a dummy knob. They are very convenient when needing to get oversized furniture inside or out. Just open the passage door and unlatch the two brass latches, on top and bottom of the stationary door land open them both, it's that simple. However, when you close them you must latch the locks down, if not anyone can push them open even if the passage door is locked. When all 3 sets of my doors are open(makes up my back wall) it lets the outside in. They are also great for entertainmenting as my doors or in the keeping room where some like to gather to watch the game and use the restroom but still be a part of the outside party too. The original Postee is wanting this look above, but she only has a 36" max space opening drawn on the plans and can't make it larger(if I'm correct?) I see this is an OLDER blog, but I felt I needed to add my two cents just in case others read these just like I am at the moment, the photo at bottom are of my house double doors, the 3 set is to the left of the picture there is a hallway that they fall into.

Thank you for your replies! RE : Basement There will be a full basement, so storage under the stairs on the first floor is not an option. RE: Kitchen layout I have posted a detailed kitchen plan in the Kitchens forum, I will respond to comments tonight or tomorrow morning. RE: Centralized linen closet I like the idea, I will have to play around to see if I can integrate this. How big is yours, athensmomof3? I thought the laundry room was large enough to perform this function (we currently have basically a 5' closet with the washer and dryer side by side, and 5' of upper cabinets.) RE: Laundry room We do have a front-loading washer and dryer. Athensmomof3, how much clearance would you recommend in front of the washer and dryer? Thank you for suggesting to put the dryer on the exterior wall, that makes a lot of sense. RE: Distance between kitchen island and couch The distance from the cabinet to the back of the couch is 54'', but this would probably be reduced to 48'' once you factor in the countertop and the back of the stools. Other dimensions are posted in this thread in the Kitchens Forum: http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/kitchbath/msg1121581517661.html?5 RE: Dining room We were thinking of putting 30'' sliding doors in the butler's pantry (one in the kitchen and one in the dining room). Also, I would rather have a simple opening instead of doors. I agree it would be more aesthetically pleasing if the opening for the library and the dining room were equal. Would 60'' be enough, or should be plan for a larger opening? RE: Library I agree it would look better if we used sliding doors instead of swing doors in the library, but if we do this, the maximum opening would be 48'' because of the closets flanking either side of the opening. This would in turn imply a 48'' opening to the dining room, and I think those are rather small compared to the length of the front hall (14'). What do you think? RE: Powder room (Kirkhall) I like your suggestion. Thank you.

We have one from Masonite. I've been told that it's not a very good brand but we liked the look of the door. On their website, a single door transom was not an option but the store we bought it from had no problem getting it. The only issue I remember having was that we could only get clear glass I think.

Skies the limit once you strip it down to the rough opening. What do you want? You can usually get a single door in there some some smaller sidelites as an option.